Beyond {UNDER EDIT}

S1-1-The Sun on Earth

"Come out will ya!" yelled Panav as he waited anxiously for the reply.

"No." The stubborn reply came from across the wooden door.

Panav knocked the door hard with his right fist. "Look, Even I am not jovial to go to the lecture but we have to go. Come out fast, you know the punishment for bunking lectures, don't you?"

The sudden reference to the punishment was enough for the door to be opened. Panav smiled. A short boy stood in front of him. His annoyance was clearly expressed with his expressions. Panav motioned him to follow as he turned and ran across the corridor. "Come on Ojas! Rohak and Abhay are already waiting outside!"

Quite reluctantly, Ojas followed.

After a few seconds of sprinting they exited the main door and were out the open. The sun was shining bright. They had to momentarily shield their eyes with their hands till their eyes adapted to the light change. A single file of children was moving slowly towards the amphitheater like structure in the distance. All the activities of the town were brought to a standstill. The men had left the farms and the women had left the house. The older citizens had left their comfortable spots under the large shady trees and the children had left their schools. All were moving towards this place.

Even the king and his royal family had left their castle in adorned horse carriages.

For someone unfamiliar, this would be quite uncanny. But for the citizens of Surya town, this was almost a daily affair.

Surya Town. This bizarre town was untouched by the streak of early urbanization and was located between the deep valleys of the Himalayas. It lay surrounded by tall mountains whose bases were covered in thick forests. Amidst this town lived peculiar people with queer traditions. The people were immensely orthodox and believed almost anything which had Lord Shiva's name in it. Probably this was the reason that they were such behindhand with respect to growth and progress. They believed the existence of fierce man-eating demons beyond the mountains and each one of them feared to cross the town's borders. Even those who went were the woodcutters who also would go only as far as the Makara River. Beyond which the dark forests and the mountains started .

As a result, none had been beyond the river. Even those who had gone had never returned. But their superstition lay justified; in the mountain's dark forests thrived the tribal clan called Praveg. Warriors of this clan were extremely skilled and ruthless in killing. The current king's forefather had once sent an entire army of his most skilled soldiers to banish them, only to find butchered bodies of his soldiers the next day on the bank of Makara river. The word Praveg itself sent shivers down the back of villagers. Even the king feared them. The word was now another synonym for death. The Praveg clan.

It took some while for Ojas and Panav to locate their division's line amid the crowd, but they eventually found it with directional help from villagers and children of other divisions.

"Aha! Here you are!" Exclaimed Ojas as he gently slapped Abhay's back. Abhay turned around and so did Rohak who was standing next to him.

"What took you guys so long?" Abhay asked.

Before Ojas could justify, Panav interrupted in a mocking tone, "Nothing, Sir Ojas the great threw up another tantrum as he was unwilling to go to the lecture."

In reply, Ojas punched Panav in the stomach and all four of them laughed; momentarily forgetting the world around them.

Abhay, Rohak, Panav and Ojas, were all around sixteen year olds and all had been raised together since they could remember. They were all roommates at the renowned orphanage of the town. Each one of them had a different outlook, but what united them was one common aim-

To escape the orphanage and go beyond the mountains .